'grilled cheese' on Serious Eats

A grilled cheese is a grilled cheese, right? I mean, it's the first meal that most of us learn how to cook at home by ourselves. It's the perfect midnight snack or soup-dipper. It's great for kids but is never turned down by an adult. It's salty, gooey, crisp, buttery, and comforting in all the right ways. But there's grilled cheese, then there's GRILLED CHEESE. Here are 20 great ways to tell the difference. More

A grilled cheese inspired by cemitas—the Pueblo, Mexico sandwich specialty. Stringy Oaxacan cheese surrounds a spicy, creamy mash of avocado and chipotles in adobo, while a layer of whole papalo leaves add an herbal pop. This sandwich may not have the meat or the classic cemita roll, but it still manages to capture the bold, fiery flavors of the original. More

Blue cheese, shredded chicken, and Frank's RedHot are straddled by two melted layers of Monterey Jack—all the spicy, meaty, funky, cheesy flavors of a bar food classic, translated into the ultimate comfort food. More

One of my favorite breakfasts: cut a hole out of a slice of bread, cook in butter, break an egg into the hole. Well, we wondered what would happen if we built a grilled cheese out of two of those bad boys. We did it, and deliciousness ensued. More

Want to impress your dinner date? Whip up a couple of French Melts. That's a big ol' pile of sweet, caramelized onions (see here for an easy technique to speed up the process) melted with a fat slab of Comté cheese. It's like French onion soup in an easy-to-pick-up, extra-buttery package. Set the table cloth and pull out the fine china, dear, tonight I'm wearing pants to the table! More

Reason would suggest that when you're eating on-the-go, a gooey grilled cheese is not a practical sandwich choice. Reason would also suggest that when you're picking up lunch from a fine cheese shop—in this case, one of the finest in New England—it's only prudent to order the gooiest, most spectacular-sounding grilled cheese sandwich on the menu. More

I'm generally a purist when it comes to food—I'll take my burgers with onions and pickles and my cookies with chocolate chips, thank you—but I make exceptions now and then, especially when they involve Brussels sprouts, easily my favorite fall vegetable. On the menu today: Brussels sprout grilled cheese sandwiches. More

I spent five weeks this summer living in San Francisco's Mission District, going to bars that let my dogs roam free, making plans for big hiking trips, and pretending that I was going to learn to surf. Instead, I mostly ate sandwiches. Lots of sandwiches. Over 50 of 'em, from 23 different sandwich shops—that's every single self-proclaimed sandwich shop in The Mission, and then some. Here is my totally personal list of the 9 best sandwiches in the neighborhood. More

I'm not going to try to pretend to take credit for this genius idea—I saw it late the other night on thefoodporn sub-Reddit and immediately knew that I'd have to make it for lunch the next day. The idea is that when you've got a few hungry mouths to feed, rather than forming a grilled cheese sandwiches in the standard shape, you instead roll the cheese up into the bread jelly roll-style before gently frying them in butter. You end up with an easy-to-pick-up, eminently dippable snack that's more fun, easier to share, and just as tasty as the more traditional version. More

Welcome to San Francisco's Mission Sandwich week, in which we detail our five-week experiment tasting and documenting over 50 sandwiches in one small neighborhood. The goal? To put together the ultimate sandwich lover's guide to San Francisco's Mission District. We're kicking it off today with grilled cheese. More

Pardon the interruption: I pledged a summer-long series of food truck posts, but this limited-edition Cutty's special only comes around during tomato season and it's worthy of the mobile meal hiatus. More